Gamecocks sit atop the SEC hoops world

Columbia began the week as the home of the two first-place teams in SEC basketball. South Carolina’s women were expected to be there after winning the past three regular-season league titles. The Gamecocks’ men vaulted into first after beating Georgia on Saturday, then seeing Florida top Kentucky.

Big crowds are expected for the games this week – the men host Alabama on Tuesday, the women host Auburn on Thursday – and the players and coaches are receiving congratulations and “Keep it ups” as they stroll around campus. It’s a fun time to be a college basketball fan in town.

Which is why all the talk Monday was about shoving it aside. This means nothing without a strong finish.

Never miss a local story.

Sign up today for a free 30 day free trial of unlimited digital access.

“Just to see where this program has gone, it was tough climbing that ladder,” sophomore P.J. Dozier mused. “But it’s real easy to fall off.”

The USC women are in first place by a half-game with five to play and beat the team they’re leading, Mississippi State. Each team has a tough road to the finish, with two of their final three on the road.

Because the Gamecocks lost to Tennessee, the Bulldogs can still tie USC at the end of the year and claim the SEC regular-season title. Each team would be honored as SEC champion (not “co-champion”), but only USC would receive the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament by virtue of its head-to-head win.

Of course, USC wants the title all to itself, but it split its 2015 title with the Lady Vols although it won the head-to-head matchup and took the tournament’s top seed. But they can’t worry about what MSU will do. They can only try to win all of their remaining games. Third-place Texas A&M might have something to say about it, too – the Aggies are 7-3 in the SEC and host the Gamecocks and Bulldogs to finish the season.

As for the men, they were about preparing for Alabama, nothing else. Of course, they know where they stood after watching the Kentucky-Florida game, but they were in this spot last year, too.

The Gamecocks were tied for first place last year 11 games in and were smacked by Kentucky to start a 3-3 slide to end the regular season.

“Coach talked about it today – a couple of years ago we were last in the standings,” senior Duane Notice said. “We can’t be complacent. We have a lot of work to do.”

USC has eight games to go, half on the road. Seven are against teams in the top half of the league.

Nobody needed reminding of Kentucky last year or what happened after that, which is why coach Frank Martin preached staying in the moment. Don’t look ahead, don’t look back, just do what the team’s mission has been every day since he arrived five years ago – get better today.

“I’d rather be in first place on Feb. 6 than 13th place. We’ve been there,” said Martin, who didn’t watch the Florida-Kentucky game, instead immersing himself in Alabama tape. “I’m just happy with where we’re at right now. My whole career, I’ve really worked real hard at trying to get my teams to play the best basketball they can possibly play at the end of the year.”

His team seems well on its way to fulfilling that goal. As does Dawn Staley’s.